My Monthly Report – May 2012

I just got back from a successful trip to New York for Blog World Expo and I’ll definitely post a recap post about that in the near future (I have a ton of amazing experiences to share!), but for now, it’s time for my May 2012 monthly income report.

As always, each month, I publish a detailed summary about my online businesses including a breakdown of exactly how much money I’ve made and where it comes from.

Doing this helps me take notice of any upward or downward trends in my businesses, and it allows me to be transparent while hopefully providing some inspiration to you as well.

With that said, many people see the numbers and fail to realize that years of hard work was put into my businesses before getting to this point.

Succeeding online takes time, patience, stamina and perseverance, and as a result most people who try will fail. I hope that my insights both here in this post and on the rest of my blog will help you succeed in your journey.

What Happened in May?

I don’t know about you, but there seems to be an inconvenient, intermittent pattern that’s a part of my life:

Long stretches of calm with nothing of major concern, followed by 2 to 4 weeks of stressful “OMG why is everything happening now at the exact same time!”

The first week of May was cool, calm and collective.

The rest of May – not so much.

With 3 presentations at Blog World Expo to prepare for and the nationwide release of Crooked Arrows, housework both in the house and in the backyard, combined with a wife who is 5-months pregnant and a 2 and a half year old who is acting like a 2 and a half year old, it was definitely a lot to take on.

As a result, I didn’t really work on much else, and I even slowed down my posting schedule a bit to accommodate.

It’ll be interesting to see what the income looks like for May considering most of what I was working on had nothing to do directly with my income sources.

Here is what I did do though:

SPI Trademark

As of May 1st, Smart Passive Income is now a federal trademark.

It took 9 months and 26 days (almost 10 months!) to complete the application process – but it’s finally done.

I got it through Legalzoom (affiliate link), but Legalzoom wasn’t the hold up – it was the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and a lengthy back and forth process to make sure that I was only trademarking the term “smart passive income”, and not “passive income”.

The total cost was $484:

$169 Legalzoom Fee

$325 Government Filing Fee

Note: You can save money by going directly through the USPTO.gov website instead of through Legalzoom, although it’ll take a little more time.

So why did I get the trademark?

The main reason is for protection. Having a registered trademark makes it much easier to stop anyone who attempts to use or register a similar mark – especially when it comes to domain names. No particular website prompted me to get the trademark, although I have noticed a few using the same domain that I’m now keeping my eye on.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to go on a killing spree and start targeting any site that mentions SPI, but if someone uses the mark it in a way that’s harmful to my brand or confusing to consumers, then I definitely have the trademark to use in my favor, which is nice.

Crooked Arrows Premiere – On The Red Carpet

Mid-May, I flew to Boston to watch the premiere of Crooked Arrows - and it was an incredible, once in a lifetime experience!

I’ve been a part of the marketing team for a good year and a half, so to finally sit in a large theater and watch the finished product alongside some of the stars of the film, including Brandon Routh (of Superman Returns), brought tears to my eyes.

It was extra special because the producers gave me a nice shout out before the film started, and afterwards I did see my name in the credits under “Social Media”.

As far as my scene in the movie – I was mixed in a large crowd and I *think* I saw myself in a frame or two, but I’ll have to get the DVD just to make sure.

Next time, maybe I’ll ask for a line instead.

The movie has done pretty well in the box office, especially considering it’s an independent movie that has only opened in 300 theaters nationwide. It was a one-point the top #13 movie in the country on a revenue-per-theater basis, which is impressive.

A number of SPI fans actually messaged me saying they saw the movie too and my name in the credits – and to each and every one of you – I thank you!

The coolest thing that happened in Boston was at the after party for the premiere. At the party, a number of people came up to me and congratulated me on the work I did for the film with the website and the Facebook Page, which is now 130,000 fans strong.

About 6 or 7 people gave me their business cards asking if I was available to work on some of their own film-related projects in the near future, which is awesome!

This venture has definitely opened up a lot of new opportunities for me, and to think it was all because of someone in Hollywood listening to my podcast.

How I Increased My Bluehost Affiliate Earnings Even More

Many SPI readers know that a significant portion of my income comes directly from the affiliate earnings made through my domain & hosting link for Bluehost.

The affiliate relationship currently generates upwards of $20,000 per month.

In the later half of May, however, I’ve been lucky enough to be able to increase those earnings even more.

How?

A landing page specifically for bloggers.

In other words – the page on Bluehost’s site that people go to after clicking through my link is now better targeted.

Here’s the before and after (click to enlarge):

That’s a 2.3% increase in conversion rate, which is huge! To put that in context, that means that for every 50 people that click through, that’s an additional sale because of the new landing page.

The new page is obviously targeted for those looking to start a WordPress blog, prominently displaying text like:

“Welcome, WordPress Fans!”

“Free 1-Click Installation of WordPress”

“Hosting over 850,000 WordPress blogs”

“WordPress.org Recommended Host Since 2005″

“Not Just the Best Blogging Software”

For my specific audience, this is a much better and targeted page. The other one focused on web hosting and technology, as opposed to what the users were going to create with it – a blog.

I do have to give props and credit to Bluehost for this one – their affiliate team sent me this new page and it’s definitely yielding higher conversions.

If you’re promoting Bluehost as well (which I know some of you are), you can get to this specific landing page from your affiliate link by adding the following code to the end of your normal Bluehost affiliate link (without quotations):

“wordpress?page=/wordpress”

so that your affiliate code looks like this:

http://www.bluehost.com/track/patflynn3/wordpress?page=/wordpress

If you’re promoting a hosting company that isn’t Bluehost – you should definitely try to convince your hosting service provider to create a landing page that’s perfectly suited for your specific audience, if possible.

Actually, it doesn’t matter if it’s hosting or not – this strategy would work with any product that you’re promoting. Getting people to click on your links is just half the battle. What happens after definitely matters – it’s just most of the time it’s totally out of our control.

Okay – so I’m sure you’re itching to see how much my earnings increased for Bluehost in May, and how my other earnings fared, so let’s get to the numbers:

Income Breakdown

Disclosure: many of the links below are affiliate links that will earn me a commission if you purchase through them. If you do, I absolutely appreciate it and if you have any questions about any of the products or services please contact me!

Also, please note that a lot of these are figures from reports from each individual company for the previous month. It does not necessarily reflect the actual payment which, for some of the companies listed below, come 30 to 60 days later and may change because of potential refunds or corrections.

Major expenses this month include virtual assistants (one full-time, one part-time), hosting account for SPI (dedicated server), hosting for other websites, recurring payments for various tools, CPA (Certified Public Accountant) fees and payments for future travel for Blog World Expo.

Another amazing month, especially considering I didn’t put in very many hours this past month, except for Crooked Arrows and prepping for my BWE presentations.

As I always mention, I’ll be the first to admit that a significant portion of my total online income comes as a result of The Smart Passive Income Blog – mostly from the products that I recommend as an affiliate, which are products I’ve used or am extremely familiar with and have helped me in one way, shape or form. Because of that, I have no shame in earning this much from the blog as I know that I’m helping people, I’m just fortunate that I’m doing so in a way that pays me back too.

The support from the SPI community is amazing. Some people even go out of their way to make sure they click on my referral links, which means the world to me.

With this comes a great responsibility to the community that I know I have and will never take for granted – and as such I never promote just for the potential income that can come from an offer, even though those opportunities are definitely there.

I’m incredibly grateful for everything and I will continue to give back with valuable content and my experience in return.

Things I Learned in May

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” – Sun Tzu

This is one of my all-time favorite quotes, because it’s true.

This was was made very clear to me while I was in Boston and given the opportunity to work on even more projects in the film industry as a result of the work I did with Crooked Arrows.

The more you put yourself out there, and the more chances you take, the more opportunities will arise – that’s just how it works. It’s not even a matter of “the Universe” or luck or anything like that.

It’s simple math.

So put yourself out there and create opportunities – or as I’ve said in the past, plant seeds.

Lastly, to help me prepare for my Blog World Expo speeches, I watched about 50 different presentations on YouTube. This helped me tremendously because as I was watching, I was consciously looking out for things that had an impact on me as a viewer – from words that were spoken to how they were spoken, facial expressions and even how they moved.

When doing anything that will be presented to an audience – from blogging to giving live presentations, one of the best things you can do is learn from those who have made an impact on you and use them as inspiration.

Now, of course, there’s definitely a line between using another person’s work as inspiration and just straight up copying, and that’s a line that a lot of people tend to cross moreso online, but if you think about the “why” as opposed to the “what”, then it’s definitely okay to attempt to include those whys in what you do as well.

As a quick example, many YouTube presentations I watched started with the presenter asking the audience a question.

I eventually learned that by asking a question at the beginning of a live presentation, one that people could relate to, it immediately gets the audience to engage with the presenter – especially if the audience is asked to raise their hand.

It worked on me.

If you were at Blog World Expo for my solo presentation last week, you would have noticed that that’s exactly how I started off. And yes, I’ll be sharing my full presentation on the blog and on the podcast very soon.

The lesson is this:

Watch those who are where you want to be and actively try to understand the “why” behind what they do. It can streamline your learning process (and results) bigtime.

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I’m going all out lately to increase conversions on every property that I own or manage.

Its insane once you realize how much money is being left on the table.

Regards,

TomL

Pat

Right Tom – isn’t it crazy? There are two parts to the equation – getting traffic in, and then getting that traffic to convert. Most people worry about the traffic, but conversions are just as, if not, more powerful.

http://chrisldavis.com Chris

Right on Pat! Once you start getting good traffic optimizing your site for better conversions is money in the bank.

Thanks for sharing (like always)

http://ways-to-invest-money.com/ Thomas

First Congrats on the trademark! What a long process but I am sure it is well worth it.

Its amazing still how simple changes can make a difference in conversion rates. Another great job!

Pat

Yeah – it took for ever but I’m finally glad it’s finished. Thanks Thomas, and all the best to you! Sweet Avatar of the motorbike – is that you?

http://lifeinthegrid.com Cory Lamle

Hey Pat,

Very nice target breakdown on Bluehost! Once again a true inspirational report that shows your strategies are working month after month. Keep the reports flowing they are very motivational!

Cheers!

Pat

Will do Cory! Cheers!

http://www.howtogetonrealitytv.net Dan @ How To Get On Reality TV

Another epic month Pat, congrats! I notice that you don’t post your income from your initial Infobarrel articles anymore, did it drop to zero or did you remove it for other reasons?

Pat

The income from the few articles I’ve written are insignificant, and often zero. I am still an advocate of using IB for starting out though and learning how things work online, and there are still people earning thousands a month from it – but they write a ton. I am using my time for other things at the moment.

http://www.massagebodytobody.nl Stein

Nice monthly report again Pat, thanks for sharing with us.

Did you count these two “friends” as well in your expenses
•$169 Legalzoom Fee
•$325 Government Filing Fee

Regards,

Stein from the Netherlands

Pat

Thanks Stein. Actually, I paid for those a LONG time ago, so they weren’t included in this month’s breakdown

http://sportmanagement.cc Remco

Nice month, and I am looking forward to your presentations. The new Bluehost landingpage has too much new things to point out the deciding factor, but I see that they also offer a lower price.

Very helpful. I registered a domain name recently. A big company in the USA has the .com and I bought the .tv for an online tv and the guys sent me an email asking me to drop the name.

Since I am in another country, hope there is no issue with that?

http://www.livegoldprices.com Shaun

Great job! Love reading these reports. It’s amazing what building a system and leveraging it and then repeating the process can do.

Have you changed your backlink strategy much after Penguin?

Pat

Slightly, but the process is still the same – it’s just the spinning aspect is done with even more care (to a higher degree of uniqueness) and the anchor text distribution is a lot less targeted on the home keyword (no more than 20%).

Mindset has definitely changed though – trying to “game” Google is a fool’s game – but creating an ultimate resource that doesn’t rely on Google is the best way to go (and if that happens usually Google will be in favor of a site like that).

http://unifiedtheoryofhealthandfitness.wordpress.com Graham

holy crap

http://www.ivblogger.com Sheyi @ Ivblogger.com

Cgrats on the trade mark Pat. It means no one can use that name any longer!

How long are we going to wait for your product?

Sheyi

Pat

Probably a lot longer. I’m not forcing any products out right now and the product I had about 90% complete I’m not comfortable selling because of all the latest changes in Google, and forthcoming changes as well.

Wilco

Yet another great breakdown, thanks Pat! Even though they’re posted every month.. they’re impressive and motivating every single time!

Pat

Thanks Wilco!

http://www.realestateinyourtwenties.com Brandon

Very cool. Another killer month! Thanks for the continued inspiration Pat. Glad BlogWorld went well!

Keep up the good work!

Pat

Cheers Brandon – thanks!

http://www.jebegaie.com Bérenger – conseils bégaiement

Hey Pat, as usual, this income report is truely admirable ! I really like the quote from Sun tzu too, is this one in his book The Art of War ? I can’t remind this one, but the book is great anyway and this is one of my all-time favorite as well.

Thanks again for all your great tips and inspirational work

Pat

I’m not sure if it’s from Art of War specifically but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. I love that book – it has many many amazing quote just like this one.

Thanks so much for the support!

http://www.nichezilla.com Adam

Pat,

First off thanks for the bluehost tip! Second, I have turned your website into my own personal case study. I have been back reading from your first posts and working way my forward and all that you have achieved is absolutely astounding. I see you, and your website, as beacon of light and continue to be amazed.

Your site doesn’t instill a sense of jealousy, but more of a sense of “OK, he can do it, so what’s stopping me from doing the same?”

I love what you do and the ways you accomplish it. Keep on keeping on!

Pat

Sweet Adam, I’m glad to hear the site is giving you inspiration and I love when people tell me they go back to the beginning and can see how much I and the site has grown. I hope people will be able to say the same 3 years from now looking back to today’s post too!

Nothing is stopping you from doing the same

http://walnutmarketing.com/ Dan

Wow, that’s a massive increase in conversion rate and goes to show just how important the sales page is.

As well as the obvious change that it is targeting WordPress users rather than generic website owners, I think the new sales page is also a lot less cluttered, is easier to read and has more eye-catching calls to action.

I might steal that bright orange button for some of my own websites

Dan

Pat

It seems to be working Dan! Again, big time props to Bluehost for figuring this out. if I was smart I would have brought it up to them earlier.

http://webmarketingcamp.com Brock

Pat,

Another awesome month! Sounds like you were ridiculously busy. Your income reports motivate me every month, they show me what is possible with hard work, dedication, patience, and a good strategy.

Thanks again for your transparency, your site was where my quest to leave the day job behind started. I’m not there yet, but I’m working towards it bit by bit and I can’t thank you enough!

Brock

Pat

Thanks Brock, and all the best to you on your journey. Keep working towards it and giving yourself opportunities – great things will happen. Cheers!

http://www.marginalboundaries.com T.W. Anderson @ Marginal Boundaries

Rock on, Pat.

I think one of the most important things to me that I’ve taken away from your website over the past few years of following has been the latter part of your post here: The more you put yourself out there, and the more chances you take, the more opportunities will arise.

This has been especially true as I’ve been moving into full-time marketing mode for mid-2012. I’ve got two interns working with me now, and we are still going through orientation this week, but all of what I’ve achieved presently has been by going out there, knocking on doors, starting small and building up relationships. The video you did with Corbett a couple of months back in particular was really helpful in boosting things, because you went into the power of networking…not just with the A listers in your fields, but going to the guys who are at your level (I’m not an A lister, more like a C lister at this point in my niche lol, but every connection works me up the ranks!).

I’ve made several connections in the last month alone, people who have been asking me if they can join up as an affiliate, I’ve been interviewing other people in the travel industry with a “Secrets of My Success” series, where each “My” is another person who is making full-time income online, and you are right…it all comes down to simple math. The more exposure you get, the more connections you make, the more people will eventually want to work with you and help spread the word about you and your brand.

Huge grats on the Hollywood connection. I remember first coming across your blog in 2009 when I was living in Bulgaria and still freelancing full time with Complete Writing Solutions, and you’ve been a huge mentor for me over the years since then. Wicked cool to see you continuing the onward-and-upward march!

Pat

Awesome dude, and thanks for sharing how you’ve been creating opportunities for yourself too – that’s SUPER motivating – for everyone else here I’m sure, but for myself too. I love hearing others who are taking action and seeing results.

Wishing you all the best and hope to hear more from you in the near future! With good news, I’m sure

Isaac Ameyaw

It’s amazing how you work hard now and reap the benefits later. You are actually reaping it now for you hard work. You always inspire me take action. Great report, nicely presented. Keep the inspiration coming. God bless you.

Regards,
Ike.

Pat

Cheers Isaac, thanks for the kind words and I’ll do my best to keep the inspiration coming!

Isaac Ameyaw

Thanks Pat. I’d really be glad to send you an email. May I have your permission to do that? :).

Pat

Of course, although I can’t promise I’ll respond anytime soon. I have 800 emails backed up since leaving for BWE last week, and it’s only fair if I get to them in order.

http://www.daddysbroke.com Craig

Pat,

It still amazes me to this day how much success you have had from all of the websites. It motivates me to attempt to do the same but lets face it, you are the SPI King!

some day I will be up there as well…maybe when I get laid off?

Pat

Heh, thanks Craig. I’m sure there are plenty more people killing it out there with passive income, they’re just not sharing how much they are, and why would they need to.

http://platinumpresenter.com Paul Evans

Awesome report, Pat! Love the Bluehost hack.

Also, are your BH commissions from scratch each month or recurring? I was looking into their aff program and it says it pays $65 per sale. So you’re averaging over 300 new sales a month?

Thanks!

Pat

Thanks Paul. They are actually all from scratch, which is pretty crazy. I will say that I have a higher than normal commission though, which happened as a result of the volume I’m pushing. Unfortunately, I can’t disclose how much exactly that is.

http://platinumpresenter.com Paul Evans

Awesome, thanks!

http://www.detailedsuccess.com Kris @ Detailed Success

Congratulations on the trademark Pat!

And holy mother of income :O

It’s nice to see that all your hard work is coming to fruition. You get new opportunities and completely new exciting doors are opening in front of you. That’s what happens when you work hard and smart. You can work as hard as humanly possible, but if you aren’t working smart nothing will come of it.

Smart passive income indeed. You are a true inspiration.
Can’t wait for the presentation recording.

Thank you!
Kris

http://www.enairablog.com Donatus

Wow…. Pat am always working hard to be like you and be one of the best

https://twitter.com/DreamJobGuy Alex B

Pat,

Great job my friend (I love being able to say this to you every month)! Keep up the great work, and I look forward to seeing/reading/hearing your Blog World recap! I hated that I didn’t get to make it (me getting married and all), but I certainly look forward to the possibility of attending in Las Vegas!

Great tip on the BlueHost landing page, and awesome increase in conversion! Nice work man!

I wish you much continued success!

All the best,
-Alex

http://www.mobileapptycoon.com Thomas @ Mobile App Tycoon

Congrats on another great month! I was just thinking, have you ever contacted Bluehost in regards to raising your commission for sales? I would think you are probably their biggest affiliate (or at least pretty close) so they would hate to lose you – wouldn’t it be worth it to try and negotiate a better rate for yourself? You might have already done this already, but if not you should give it a try I think – the worse they could say is no

http://livetheneweconomy.com Mike

You remain the gold standard for inspiration! Just remarkable!

http://www.newbodyblog.com Adam

Pat

I have to say, I never thought about starting online bussines until I came across your monthly reports and slowly started realizing the potential. I want to thank you and I wish you only the best.

Adam

http://wppowerguide.com Belsien

Congrats again on all the success Pat, these monthly reports show all of us how powerful being supportive and helpful FIRST (and a good guy) can lead you down a successful path and lead to opportunities that would not possible if you went the common, sneaky, route. You do it with style my friend.

I can relate to what you said about “put yourself out there and create opportunities – or as I’ve said in the past, plant seeds.” Meetup.com is an excellent way to get out there for anyone who doesn’t know where to begin creating these opportunities.

btw…Hope you can use that video and share your BW session with more people, its very inspiring

http://executiveseo.com Ryan England

That Bluehost advice is key. I feel like my conversions are no where near yours, but since I mainly use WordPress and can ramble about it all day; sending them to a landing page specifically, should definitely help them take action on the purchase.

I think I first found you after being featured on IBM, and I think the first Income Report I saw was ~16k. You’ve come a long way since then, and its fantastic that you’re so open about both the processes and results.

Thanks as always. ~Ryan

http://www.nichepursuits.com Spencer Haws

Pat:
I am always humbled and inspired when I see what you are able to accomplish with this great property you have built here at SPI. Congrats on all the hard work…its paying off.

Also, thanks for the bluehost affiliate landing page tip!

http://investorjunkie.com Larry Ludwig

Pat,

Did you work with Bluehost to modify and give recommendations to their page? Or they did it themselves. We talked about this at BWENY. What happens if the affiliate sells a great product but their landing page sucks?

http://jamrockcontent.com Casey Gentles

Hey Pat congratulations on another superb month! You rock man and you really motivate us. I cant wait to see your presentation as I know it must have been super amazing.

You shows exactly what passive income means – as even though you didn’t get to put in much work your income is there working for you! Every time I read your income reports and super pumped up to work like crazy lol. Thanks for everything man and may God continue to bless you and your family.

http://truepassiveliving.com Austin

Hey Pat This is Awesome! Looking to boost my $10,000 per month to $50,000 per month! Congrats and can’t wait to see it break 6 figures!

http://www.calawreport.com John Corcoran

Pat: I think it’s great that you take the time to go back and optimize old links and squeeze additional income out of projects you have worked on months if not years earlier, rather than forgetting about them and moving on. It really shows a difference. It’s too easy to move on to the next project or the next idea, but there’s real power is going back and optimizing.

Seth Waite

Optimizing your previous is the smartest way to make more money. We get caught up in more products, websites, links, etc. when the real trick is to do what is already working better. If you could squeeze 2% out of every link and landing page on your site then that’s a considerable addition to your bottom line.

Great work Pat!

http://www.smartbusinessrevolution.com John Corcoran

Seth – I totally agree. Optimizing your past posts and products is the online equivalent to generating more revenue per client/customer in an offline environment. For an offline business, it is always far less expensive to get more business out of a past client/customer than it is to acquire a new client/customer. It is commonly reported that it costs 8 times as much to acquire a new client/customer as it does to retain an existing or past client/customer.

Taking that metaphor to the online world, the lesson is if you have something that is generating revenue for you, it’s a good idea to optimize it!

Brent

Wow Pat!
Amazing article and adventure you have been going through. I just started reading your blog about two weeks ago and it’s very inspiring. Keep up the good work!

PS: Just signed up on Info Barrel to get my feet wet content creating and SEO.

Cheers,

http://www.rethinkingyourself.com Shaun

Hey Pat, I just wanted to say thank you for all the valuble information you’ve provided here on your site. I came across your site a few months ago when I was toying with the idea of starting a self improvement blog. I finally took the plunge and started my own website last month. As a way of saying thanks, I signed up for bluehost via your link. Keep up the great work. You are truely an inspiration!

http://myonlinesuccessdiary.com Phil Jensen

Wow…and I thought I had a good May…Pat you’re killing it again.

Interesting results on the Bluehost conversion…I wonder if I can do the same with Hostgator?

Anyways, keep up the great work and thanks again for sharing.

Cheers

Phil

http://www.apartmenthunterhq.com Nick – Apartment Search

Another inspiring post Pat!

Chaseki

Thanks much for sharing Pat, you are the very few (if any) posting earnings consistently and with great details.

Also, I noticed your trade mark genuine honest intent to help people when talking about legalzoom site not only do you disclaim affiliate link but you go even further by volunteering additional info of going straight to USTPO site to save money(to all those reading, I highly recommend either the legalzoom or any other legal service route instead).

It is most unfortunate, as I come across numerous Internet/affiliate marketing sites with absolutely no disclaimers whatsoever, completly ignoring FTC guidelines for affiliate disclosure, and distastefully trying to make people click and buy affiliate links by way of deception.

You set a prime perfect example of how to present the right people with the right affiliate links for the sole purpose of helping them.

Thank again Pat!

http://www.makingsenseofcents.com Michelle

Wow May was great for you!

http://freedomlovin.com Kevin

Nice work, Pat!
I’m curious about your Green Exam Academy site. Did it take a hit at some point? It seems like sales should be a lot higher, given your rankings and the amount of content you have on the site.

Also I was happy to see that your 98 hours of work in April translates into only 5 hours a day M-F.

Watching all those videos to prepare for your talk was the right way to go. This is what world class public speakers do. Not only do they watch speeches from others in various competitions in the past, but they often even hire those people to coach them directly.

Not that you’d need to go quite that far to prepare for a Blog World Expo talk. But it’s amazing what a difference learning from those who succeeded before you can make with presentations in different contexts.

http://FrugalPatti.com Patti

Great write up once again. You are always such an inspiration!

http://youngadultfinances.com LaTisha

Thanks for sharing once again! I always come back because you have a positive attitude constantly and you work hard for what you get! Those are things I view as the key to financial success.

http://www.webpreneur.com.ph Carissa Coles

This is what I always waiting for. You are such a great inspiration Pat!

Paulo

So with all that affiliate income it means you make alot more money telling people how to do what you do, rather than actually doing it yourself.

Did you plan for things to work out this way, or has it just sort of turned out that way?

Pat

My affiliate earnings are a byproduct of sharing how I do what I do – it just so happend that recently my affiliate earnings have surpassed my what I do myself earnings – and I’m totally okay with that because I know I’m doing int in a legit way. Wasn’t planned at all, but am very happy and fortunate it worked out the way it has.

http://www.databae.com Jeff Meland

I think that’s an important point. That you didn’t plan on making the most money by affiliate earnings. Many people will want to duplicate what you are doing and focus on affiliate earnings. But it’s important to focus on creating good, useful content. I think you’ve explained that in many of your posts. Thanks for the great example Pat!

Tipjar

Not to mention that Pat makes more than a full-time income from his sites outside of this one. Security Guard Training site = ~$1,500 + Green Exam Academy = ~$3,000 + iPhone Applications = ~$4,500 = Total of $9,000.

Steve K

Congrats on another fantastic month. I think karma really has a way of rewarding those who give freely and for the right reasons.

I am wondering something though. I know you are not revealing some of your sites, and I can definitely understand why. But can you give some background on those mystery sites vs the security guard site. Are they ranked similar? How much time have you spend on the newer sites? Anything you can attribute the drastic difference in earnings? My goal is $1000 a month and you’ve done that with the security site. Any insight on whats working there vs your other sites would be greatly appreciated!

http://www.sundijo.com Sundi Jo (@sundijo)

I entered that affiliate link for Blue Host as you said, but I get a 404 error code when I click on it.

I am really just surprised after reading this whole review. Excellent. It helps me a lot to increase overall revenue from all my site’s network.

http://www.signupandmakemoney.com Greg

$50 grand, nice. It wasn’t long ago you were averaging $30 grand a month.

Great job and learning!

AB

Hi Pat,

Awesome job, and thanks for sharing. Quick question – how do you manage this as a business / tax purposes? Proprietorship / Partnership / LLC ? And how did you start originally (if you converted to something later)
(may be an idea for another blog post

Thanks again,

http://www.blogging24h.com Trung @ How to Start a Blog

I think I should create a resources page like you to increase my conversion rates. Thanks for sharing your income reports. Keep doing it.

Amazing job Pat. Your income reports are always one of my favorites to read.

http://www.considereden.com Sarah South

I just found your podcast and I’ve already devoured 6-7 episodes. I’m learning a lot, and I’m eager to get to work on some new domains I have. Thanks for your good work!

http://www.calawreport.com John Corcoran

one more thought… at this pace, I think you are going to need to change the beginning of your bio on your main page soon — the part about “No, I’m not a millionaire, but …”

http://www.olympicdistancetriathlons.com Brandon Breshears

Pat! So inspirational, thanks dude!! Just to let you know I started my niche website 17 days ago and have made $5.77 from it so far! I am super duper stoked and I can’t wait to build it more and implement all the ideas that I have!!! Thanks dude!

http://www.dailyincometips.com CCOkoji

Talking about trademark. what happens when some has a similar name with a trade mark in his own country. EG someone in UK may have smartpasive or passiveincome and he has the trademark in UK, what happens in this case?

Pat, congrats on yet another off the charts month! Stoked that Crooked Arrows did well to. brian

http://www.cbc-international.co.uk/financial-services-recoveries/ Roy

I love reading your reports Pat, shows that what your doing is effective!

Another Killer month though, keep up the good work!

Roy

http://www.enlightenedmarketing.com Andy Riegler Andrews

I’m new here, but looking forward to reading more! Thanks for sharing the information about getting Smart Passive Income trademarked. That is very helpful information. Does that mean Smart Passive Income is now an (R) or a (TM)?

http://www.livingsuperhuman.com Tony Frezza

Congrats on another great month Pat! Glad to contribute to your Bluehost earnings You definitely earned it

http://www.dormroomcash.com Adam

Another very inspirational monthly report. Thanks for that Pat.

I am really hoping you will upload your BWE presentation, I wanted to be there but could not make it.

Adam

http://www.MarketingBlogger.com David Frey – MarketingBlogger.com

Glad to see you got your trademark for Smart Passive Income. I battled with the gov. for a trademark for “Marketing Best Practices” as a result of owning my MarketingBestPractices.com site and after two years, gave up. Uhhh, those guys are nit picky.

Hey, I heard you met up with my friend Stu McLaren at BlogWorld. He mentioned you might be interested in coming to Kenya and building a school with us some time in the future. It’s a life changer Pat.

I’ve helped to build two schools there and this will be my third trip over to Kenya. We have some well known marketers coming with us this year.

Have a great week!

Pat

Indeed, I met Stu and he was great. I definitely connected with his presentation and his passion for being a dad and philanthropy. Can’t join you guys this year, but would love to next year! I’m sure it would be more than life changing.

Thanks David!

http://www.moneynaut.com Russ Houghton

Once again, I respect your transparency Pat. Its been a fun ride watching your growth, and fun. You stated that you do not have guilt making this kind of money. And you shouldn’t friend. I know there are haters out there that don’t respect those that are making a living on the web, but I think that if they understand that it can take more work to make a living online than offline, and what kind of freedom it gives you and your family, they wouldn’t be so critical. I salute you for kicking a$$ and helping others do the same.

Pat

You Rock Russ – thanks for the kind words, and all the best to you!

http://talesofwork.com Kimanzi Constable

Good job Pat, you’re an inspiration, keep crushing it!

http://YouTubeSuperstars.blogspot.com Fester Longfellow

AdSense says I just earned my first penny. Watch out P-Flynn I’m coming after ya, in a year I’ll be posting some income reports, jk.

But my niche is reviewing famous YouTubers and promoting up and coming ones. I also do tutorials to help people with their YouTube channels. I mainly focus on the creative aspects and broader tips, but for nitty gritty stuff like SEO and backlink building I’ll def be pointing them your way.

Thanks Pat,
~Fester

http://investorjunkie.com Larry Ludwig

Believe it or not when I first started, earning my first penny was more exciting than $10k/mo in my business. There is something about just starting out and all being new that makes it exciting.

http://www.handymarketer.com Christelle @Handymarketer

What an amazing month for you! You’re such an inspiration and I definitely agree with your last statement about opportunities. People used to tell me that I was lucky in life, but I think it’s always a matter of how we react to opportunities and how we see things in life. Keep going, and I look forward to see the video of your presentation.

http://collegeinfogeek.com Thomas Frank

Another great month – congrats Pat!

I actually learned something really important from this post! I’m not sure if a tailored hosting page would work quite as well for my audience, but I DEFINITELY know I need to create a Resources page. Right now, my only link is in a single post.

Thanks!

http://www.iheartbudgets.net Jacob

Nice work on upping the affiliate income. I have just started hosting affiliate links on my site and am looking at taking your approach of making a “how-to” video for showing readers how easy the product is to use. I used your “4-minute blog” video to setup my site, so I really appreciate it! I hope to help others in a similar way.

http://www.devgarage.com Luis

Another great month Pat.

Thanks for the tip about the specific WordPress landing page. Going to try it in one of my sites.

http://www.realbiztips.com Kenneth

You are killing it man! You are definitely an inspiration. Congratulations on all your success.

http://trucklicense.net/get-cdl FreedomJackson

Awesome keep it going pat.

I had different results with the UAW but its all good they have changed their product don’t know why.

Lorrie

Hi Pat,
Wasn’t that movie set in upstate NY near Syracuse? That is where I am. Makes me feel like you kinda came to visit at my house.

I am working on my website to help me start generating an income. And I listen to your podcasts frequently as a way to start the fire I need to press on. Thank you for your help.

Pat

Hey Lorrie – it was actually filmed in Boston, but a lot of the players on the lacrosse team came from the Syracuse area.

Thanks for listening to the show and for all of your support! Cheers!

http://bongotronics.com Corky Swanson

Pat your numbers are inspiring. Every now and then I think a lot of us wonder if it’s even possible, but you prove it is. Congrats on a great May!

John Street

Came across a site (http://www.chinalawblog.com) that I’m not affiliated with. It had an interesting article that mentioned trademarking in one country doesn’t protect you in another country. Anyway, just thought I add my 2 cents about that. Keep up the good work and congrats to you and your wife on the upcoming new addition.

Noticed you started an Amazon affiliate site – I started one a while back as an experiment and have found that after a few months I’ve zipped to the top of Bing and Yahoo for my keywords, but Google won’t even index it – you (or anyone else!) found anything similar? I’m guessing they are being tough on new affiliate sites…I’m fighting back with the best content I can muster, trying to make the site as substantial as possible, but it’s pretty annoying!

Thanks again

http://www.olympicdistancetriathlons.com Brandon Breshears

Hey Dave, the exact same thing happened to me with Yahoo and Bing. I was at number 2 spot from the first day I set up bing webmaster tools but then i’ve completely disappeared from any results at all.

I can’t figure it out, and it appears in the webmaster tools that they’ve stopped crawling my pages, it is weird.

http://exs24samples.com/ Dave G

Hey Brandon – not sure we’ ve got the same thing here – I’m still indexed in Bing and Yahoo, and doing fine with them, but Google have not indexed it at all, ever! It’s been about 3 months since submitting the url and sitemap to them which seems quite a while to me…
I was wondering if i’m being punished for clearly being an amazon affiliate site? I’ve got other sites to no.1 in google for their keywords, but they didn’t have any affiliate ads on them….and google picked them up in a few days, and i was in the top ten within a month or two….very strange, but maybe just a blip!

I like the trademark idea to protect your brand name, especially if someone is trying to use it to piggyback off your success, or trying to fool someone into thinking they are you. Unfortunately I don’t think my name can be trademarked but I guess its worth looking into if I get to that point where I feel like I need to.

Impressive income numbers, too, by the way.. good job, buddy.

http://www.capecodtraveler.com Chris Chagnon

Nice job Pat! It’s always nice to see your hard work is paying off. I have much to learn from you. Cheers.

http://www.smarthelping.com Jason Varner

I have to say that I have been peeping in on this Smart Passive Income blog for a few months. The BlueHost thing was awesome and I found that it fits nicely with what I have been working on myself on my own blog “A series on passive income” for while and into the end of the year. I am now working with BlueHost and Unique Article Wizard so I can do the same as you are doing with them.

At the end of the day, if you are not providing value in some way, you can’t earn money. You provide value and motivation monthly and your work will most likely prove to be very beneficial to myself as well as millions of others.

Great Job Pat!

http://www.adaytrip.com Craig Lodge

Cheers to another great month! Hope you enjoyed your time in Boston, my home town Where was the movie premier? If I had known about this I would have went downtown and tried to meet you……not in a crazy, Justin-Bieber-stalker kind of way though haha There’s been a lot of filming in the Boston metro area lately, exciting times

Nick Kugelman

Pat this is VERY inspirational. FYI – we appear to be on the same timeline with kids. My daughter is 2.5 and my wife is 7.5 months pregnant. Congrats to you and your family and your success.

Best,
Nick

http://www.dollarstopounds.biz/ James @ dollarstopounds.biz

Pat, another increase month on month, it’s really amazing what you’ve pulled off and you’re certainly an inspiration for us all – Hollywood, amazing!

http://www.travellingthephilippines.info/ Jemma

Hi Pat. I’m glad that you’ve earned more income last May. You’re really an inspiration to all internet marketers.

I just wonder how you sell those affiliate products. I think it’s not easy to make people buy the products that you put in your site.

Pat

Well – I give people the tools they need to achieve something. Those tools just happen to be other services or products that I haven’t created myself, and often times that comes with a commission

http://www.yourbossblows.com Bryan Knowlton

Pat! Very awesome post. I REALLY loved the additional link information for bluehost. I also promote bluehost on my resource page and that is where I get most of my orders as well. I need to change my links now, luckily that won’t be too difficult due to the way I have it set up. I really appreciate that information.

Thanks again Pat and lets hookup sometime for some coffee!

Bryan

http://www.bestoffiverr.com Charleen Larson

Hey Pat, I assume you’re doing the housework-type stuff and yardwork because it’s relaxing and a nice break from working. Otherwise those tasks are very easily outsourced.

Outsourcing domestic work saved my marriage.

Pat

I truly enjoy doing the housework – so there’s definitely no way I’m outsourcing that stuff at this point

http://www.kingsofazon.com Austin

Pat, Another great month yet again, great job!

With your security guard training site:
-Do you actively look for private advertisers or do you simply let them come to you and inquire about advertising on your site.
-Are you getting any Amazon sales?

Take care,

Austin

http://weightmeltdown.com/numis-network Luanne

Hi Pat, This information and your work is awesome. Looking forward to you ebook.

http://www.creatinemonohydratetips.com Nas

Another great month for Pat. I am following ur steps and trying now to implement them. Wish i could reach the same results as yours.:)

Regards

http://www.rungtong.com Mike Wanner

Hey Pat,

Do you do any consulting hours? Also can you reveal your affiliate link creation tool? So how do you make it yourdomain.com/affiliate.

Thanks man.

Mike

Pat

Hey Mike, right now I’m not doing any consulting. To answer your question, it’s simply a wordpress plugin called “Pretty link”

Kalille

Another great month Pat. Just curious, what or how did you get the facebook like or facebook recommended post floating bar in the bottom right of the website. Is this the new WordPress Integration for Facebook? Thanks in advance.

Pat

hehe, you’re the first person to notice that actually. Just implemented the new Facebook WordPress plugin, by Facebook! That is the recommendation bar.

http://www.dailyincometips.com CCOkoji

Can you give us a guild on how to install this facebook bar? I have tried it without success.

Thank you!

http://www.thuthuatwordpress.com Ben Troy

Are you asking how to add social network bar at the top of site, sir ?

http://www.shalusharma.com Shalu Sharma

Congratulations for making this site a huge success and registering for a federal trademark. Is the trademark, global or USA based? Nice photo with Brandon Routh, he’s so tall.

http://www.moneymakingplus.com Samantha Brown

Hi Pat, great month! Proving the passive is the way – while you were busy doing other (very fun!) things, your websites were working for you.
Shalu – trademarks are country (well, legel system but that is usually by country, although not here in England – its English and Welsh law) specific. However, being registered in another country is very persuasive and here in England and other common law countries we have something called ‘passing off’, which is sort of like ripping off another’s trademark or brand, to confuse customers into thinking you are them. It should be law in the US as their system is based on ours!

http://www.onlineincomeriver.com scott

As always, very inspirational. Nice conversion rates with BlueHost too. Even the 7% is good but if a simple change can get 2.3% more, then it’s worth the effort.

I was interested to see how your affiliate sales would change with all the recent animals being released from the google zoo (they need a better zookeeper). I know the most frequent comment on your backlinking post is “does this still work?”. With the apparent skepticism of this frequent question I thought that perhaps you would take a hit in the affiliate sales of the products related to that strategy but the earnings didn’t even bat an eye.

Continue your incredible work!
Scott

http://www.thuthuatwordpress.com/ Ben Troy

Very inspiring, Pat, your are my idol

http://www.geldschiene.de/geld-verdienen-blog/page/2/ klick

Dito! Hopefully i will earn money like he does once… Hard to reach!

http://www.zzzprofits.com Moe

Im glad you hit on the fact that blue host affilate was a big part of your income. I was wondering about it. Every month that seems to be the #1 single earner. Was it a surprise when you first started making a lot of commision with a web host affiliate? I never would have guessed it.

http://www.realtimeaffiliatemarketing.com Joe Unkovic

Great post, as always. Your openness on your income is an inspiration to budding affiliate markets. Keep up the great quality work!!!

Your site has always been one of my favorite affiliate marketing blogs.

http://www.stocksmetrics.com David W.

Hi Pat,

Amazing report!…

A propo, how do you invest your excess cash, the one left after you paid biz, life cost and other expenses?

I’ve been in touch with http://financialmentor.com/, but his tips and advices are always the same approach job, save, job, save, job, save and then some day in the far future you will be, maybe (if not dead before), financially free and living from dividends. Well, to build up 5MioUSD to live from 2% avg dividends year could take a long time even saving 50kUSD/month (~ 100 months).

I still see that you must invest a lot of time to keep your biz running so you can generate 50kUSD/month, without your personal input the wbsite woudl die in few months if not weeks, it is not exactly the 4-hours work-week approach from where you got inspired…

So, if you are looking for smart ways to find good companies to invest in and live from dividends and growing equity value don’t hesitate to visit http://www.stocksmetrics.com.

Pat, do you know of any of your readers who have managed to create a similar income (if not so high) from following your advice on SPI?

Rotem

This is most important question of this whole thread, and no answer.
Hey Pat, could you please try answering this one?

Pat

Yes! I’ve written about a few (see http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/taking-control-benny-hsu/, for example), but I get emails from people who have had success all of the time. I know a few making a low 5 figures a month, but several who are making 4 figures a month as well. I have a testimonial page that’s being setup with several case studies and kind words from my readers soon, many who share specific numbers.

http://harounkola.com Haroun Kola

Congratulations Pat, I’m a new reader of your blog and am being inspired to create my own passive income streams.

http://www.websiteop.com Matt

I guess diversification is the key?

http://inmyhomeoffice.com/ Ian McConnell

Well done Pat, those are awesome results and well deserved.

http://vladimiryusupov.com Vladimir Yusupov

Hi, Pat!
I am from far-far Russia
You inspired me to create my blog.
I hope that someday I can repeat your success

http://www.SmartPassiveCashFlow.com Dave

Another Awesome month for ya in May. Cannot wait to see your numbers for June. For me, I have also started my passive generation of cash flow. I am hitting $2,000 per month. Though it is still a puny amount. I am geared up to my target of $100,000 per month in next 10-12 years. Drips of water form the Ocean. Your blog is a great motivation to me. Thanks for all your great articles. Cheers!!

http://www.dreambuilderpro.com Mike King

Thanks Pat;

Great income report. You are inspiring and I do like at the “WHY” in what you do.

You deserve all the success that you produce for you and your family.

Cheers, Mike.

http://www.dailyincometips.com CCOkoji

Hi Pat,

I have asked this question before.

Could you show us how to add that Facebook Like bar on this site?

Once again, congratulations on you passive income.

Cheers
Okoji

http://www.velanhcs.com velanhcs

Hi,
Your articles are very impresseve and attractive, this is my first time I came across you blog, it is so good to read, keep writing.

http://www.thuthuatwordpress.com/ Ben Troy

you are very welcome

http://business-portal.pl Lukas

Good result. I can only dream of such amount.

http://www.thuthuatwordpress.com/ Ben Troy

Finally something (again)on how good your blog performs. I was wondering where the monthly blog results post of past times were gone.

Like always – good publicity and it will probably attract more readers to your blog.
Have to restart the vid tonight as I have tto hurry now.

http://www.browserspiele-browsergames.net Rene

Wow, it is really unbelievable – that are results where i am dreaming about.

http://awesomesoftwarereviews.com Anny

Hi Pat,
You have a true living proof in front of my eyes that internet gives us a way to change life. Almost a year since I started this, I learned a lot, build some but nothing comes in yet. I’m now inspired again and planning a good come back for what I learned from here and other sources….in a smarter way.

Thank you for all your words and always be happy!

http://diaryofbloggers.com Anyl Thapa

I don’t understand that how you earn a lot from Blue Host. Are you getting amount of sign up bonuses are reselling a package? Its not clear on your report so I am commenting to know that.

Pat

I’m not reselling anything – I get paid one time per new customer who goes through my link. For more info about exactly which links are converting and where they are located, check out this post here:

But Dear Pat I have seen You Tube Video which is really nice and the no of views is quite low. I have no doubt that you are getting nice conversion rate. I am just curious to know that how it is possible? You are making good amount consistently from sign ups although traffic on you tube videos is quite low.

This is the first earnings report of yours I have read and I love how thorough you are. Well done on the income, but the fact you were able to take of things at home and do the fun showbiz IM stuff while the business kept growing is even better!

Look forward to June’s Income report, hope you had a good one, I’ll be working on mine tomorrow.

I am curious about how income fluctuates monthly over the year, all other things being equal. Is the summer really worse? If you know of any stats on average monthly income by month over the whole net I’d be interested to read it.

http://findmoretodo.com Surminga

Wow, thats some income you’ve made in May.
Looking forward to seeing what the yet to be revealed purchased website is……….

Having been a SPI (tribesman) since the early days it been amazing to watch the growth you’ve attained. Meanwhile, you’ve helped me along the way and I appreciate it. I don’t get to the watering hole as much as I should but it’s great to know that you and the tribe are around. It’s like Seth Godin says in his writings..make it compelling and lead and the tribe will grow and support the movement. SPI is a movement. Congrats

http://www.mylearningprocess.com Miki Vicioso

Hi Patt! forgot to thank you for the bluehost better convertion page. I’m going to give a try and see the results, will keep you posted.

http://passiveincome.afropages.ca Ade Sobanjo

Wow… this income report is very encouraging because I just began a 24month exploration of passive income. My goal is to increase my passive income from just over$5 /day to at least $100/day while working for at least 1hr daily.

http://yougetpaidtoadvertise.com/oneofakind/main.aspx albert

Have just started to get interested in blogging and learning what it is about. Your site is well done and can see that you have put in a lot of time creating it.
Thanks for the monthly financials .
How does one find out about those seminars on blogging?
well thanks and great work

http://jmcassociatesllc.com James McCabe

Pat,
Awesome work. I found you through searching the Facebook iFrame how to. Great video and I got my Facebook landing pages up and running in no time. Thank you for “putting yourself out there” as most “successful” online personalities tend to hold too much to the chest when someone is trying to get off the ground. Your content is perfect for the “newbie” and the ones who just aren’t “getting it”.
Keep it up!

-James
JMc Associates, LLC

http://www.rectherapycenter.com Nicholas – CTRS

Congratulations Pat! Another amazing month for you and another shot of inspiration for me in my own online endeavors. Thanks for the great advice as usual.

Umar Saeed

Hi Pat,
I too am an architecture grad like you. Got laid off from work and started researching on web development/online businesses etc. I am starting my website about car reviews pretty soon, since that is my passion. I found some great information on your website.youtube videos. Thank you so very much for sharing all this information. I highly regard all your efforts and wish you the best.

Umar Saeed

http://www.onlineincomestartup.com Dr.Spencer Jones

Wow so happy that I stopped by your blog. Didn’t knew that you were revealing so much details about your earnings. Something that not many online marketers do. Really awesome. Should have found your blog bit earlier…

http://webblogtipster.com Kushal Azza

Wow.. That was amazing…!!! You have Inspired me Pat
that was really great.. No one reveals so much of there earnings to world.. that too on monthly basis.. thank you.. Hats off to your work..!!

http://hoewordikrijkmodel.nl/ sasha

Wow Very inspiring, Pat, your are my idol… keep onn this good work

http://www.tipsinablog.com Danny

Very inspirational post, Pat…

Love reading through monthly report breakdowns, as it gives you a much clearer idea of how certain products and methods produce far greater results…

I am a little curious as to your promoting(as affiliate) certain article spinning software. Isn’t that the sort of thing we are supposed to be avoiding, especially in recent times?